Planning on spending four days (Friday-Monday) at the Grand Canyon next month. There will be four adults and one four year old. We enjoy hiking but would prefer beginner to intermediate trails because of the kid. We also love eating local food while traveling. Two of us have been there before, but it was about 20 years ago when we were kids so we don't remember much.
Given that, what view points, trails, restaurants do you recommend? Thanks!
I disagree that 4 days is too long - I think it’s just right! I could probably spend at least two weeks in the Grand Canyon and not get bored. Don’t underestimate how long you can just sit and stare.
As lemmaaz said, Bright Angel and South Kaibab are both great (South Kaibab to Cedar Ridge is my favourite half-day hike). I also absolutely love walking the Rim trail (all the way from Bright Angel to Hermit’s Rest is around 8 miles, but you can hop on and hop off the shuttle buses as much as you like so this would be good for the kid too!)
You can also hire bikes to explore around the village which is fun.
The food is so-so, we didn’t find a really great meal anywhere (but didn’t eat at El Tovar which is apparently the best). My favourite meal of the trip was carrots, ranch, beef jerky and a cold beer sat right on the edge of the rim - literally unbeatable.
Is this part of a bigger trip? If you wanted a day trip, or a change of pace, the meteor crater in Winslow is really cool.